Alena Hu, the founder of Bare Jewellery, started her business out of a one-bedroom studio, storing stock under her bed.
Alena Hu, the founder of Bare Jewellery, started her business out of a one-bedroom studio, storing stock under her bed.
Alena Hu, founder of Bare Jewellery, talks to Tom Raynel about e-commerce and jewellery, alongside her experience of learning how to start a business.
What is Bare Jewellery?
Bare Jewellery is a very modern contemporary jewellery brand that suits the everyday girl. We do very minimalistic styles that elevate anoutfit instantly. It’s born from the idea of romanticising your life, because every day you wear basic outfits, so add something to dress up and put on some personality. Jewellery is something which I think shows a lot about a person.
What inspired you to start the business?
It was actually during Covid, like many small businesses. I was a wedding photographer. Weddings were, of course, not allowed, so I lost all my income, and I said I wanted to give a passion a try. I used to make hand-made jewellery and I thought, “Yeah, why not?”
I set up a Shopify store with literally five styles, and for each style, I had two inventory items in stock. I got my first order after two months, just very slowly. Then I feel like throughout 2021 it started to pick up a little – people actually would buy my stuff.
I purely do it on Instagram, taking nice, [aesthetically pleasing] photos and putting some cute props around [the items]. I ran some Facebook ads that I learned [to create] on YouTube and just started building.
Bare Jewellery is described by founder Alena Hu as a modern contemporary brand that suits the everyday girl.
Our business is definitely built on social media because we don’t have a physical store. We are fully an e-commerce business. Digitally, I think it’s very important to connect with our customers. I don’t want people to think we are a random drop-shipping company or that our stock is all over New Zealand.
I want our platform to be where people can see our faces; each employee who’s on customer service, who’s on content. I want people to see behind the brand and that our employees are the girls we are selling to as well.
How do you craft your jewellery, and what is it made from?
All the initial styles and pearl styles are still hand-made. I do think I want to put them into production next year because as the brand grows, I can’t make jewellery for eight hours a day. Most of our jewellery is produced overseas now because I can’t hand-make it myself, and also we have a bit more budget.
For example, the initial styles would be 26 letters and you need to order, say, 50-100 quantities per letter. It was a lot of money when I first started. But now I could say, “Hey, here’s my design, could you make it in the factory?”
We use freshwater pearls, and for the other jewellery, we have three base metals – stainless steel, brass and 925 sterling silver. We are still testing our products quite a bit. We make all of the designs and look at what the influencers are wearing, what the big A-listers are wearing. Then see how can we make it slightly more affordable to our customers.
What was it like hiring employees and leasing an office space for the first time?
[The business] grew quite slowly over the past four years because I was really cautious. Our team is only four people – this year was the first year I ever had an employee. The first year in business I was in a one-bedroom studio, and the stock was under my bed. The second year was a two-bedroom rental, plus a garage which was the stockroom. In the third year, I added another spare room, and then this is the fourth year.
We finally have an office and we can hire people. We’ve only started working together since October. Hiring was really difficult. I thought in the job market, as everyone was looking for a job, it would be easy to find the ideal employees. It took me months to find the right people. We had almost 400 people applying for the jobs.
It’s the first time I’ve had to take on a lease, get a lawyer and go through that. It was scary. But while I was in the midst of it all, I just felt excited instead of scared.
Alena Hu hired staff for the first time in October as her business grew, and realised how tough it is to find the right people.
How do you differentiate yourself from other brands?
I think the campaign shoot we did is really cool, the way we style, but also because we are young and our brand messaging is a bit different. It’s important for me to post my journey on social media.
I got inspired by the brand I Love Ugly – I used to follow the owner, and his journey, his podcast and everything and his brand’s whole idea is clothing for creative minds. For Bare Jewellery, I want people to see us like this: when they wear our jewellery, they think they’re powerful as well.
What would be your advice to other budding entrepreneurs?
I think just do it, stop asking 100 friends if you should do it – but don’t do it with just a full heart of passion. Do your research and look at the data. Be aware of what your strengths and weaknesses are and just be honest with yourself. Have a regular reality check regarding what actually needs to be done to grow the business.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business and retail.
